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Aidin Vaziri
Sunday, April 4, 1999
San Francisco Chronicle
Ramada Inns in Mississippi are not used to accommodating major pop stars, but they are doing their best for Sheryl Crow. Since the hotel she's staying at doesn't have any suites, the management has improvised and given the 37-year-old singer two adjacent rooms. This greatly amuses Crow, the Grammy-winning singer behind the hits "All I Wanna Do'' and ``My Favorite Mistake.'' Back on tour after a brief sabbatical that gave her a chance to settle down for the first time since releasing her 1993 debut album ``Tuesday Night Music Club,'' the former backup singer for Michael Jackson and Don Henley is once again getting accustomed to life on the road. She performs April 12 and 13 at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland.
Q: Last year a psychic predicted you would get pregnant in February. Well?
A: February has come and gone by, so I think she was a little off. I don't know by how much -- a couple of years maybe? Maybe she meant next February or some February in the near future. But not right now.
Q: You had some time off for the first time in five years. Did you enjoy being a couch potato?
A: To be perfectly honest, I've never been able to sit at home. One of the reasons I was really looking forward to getting back on the road was so I could get some rest. I find when I'm home and I'm supposed to be on quote-unquote off-time, my life is much busier with work stuff. The amount of decision-making is incredible. Putting this tour together took up all my time. I've also been working with Stevie Nicks in the studio, so I don't feel like I've had any time off. So being on the road is really like a vacation.
Q: Did you take up any domestic activities?
A: I've been trying to decorate my house because I've had it for a year and it doesn't have any furniture in it. I find that is the worst kind of decision-making. It blows my mind how hard it is to find quality stuff that is not so expensive. I'm from Missouri. You can get good antiques in Missouri for half as much as L.A., so there's something in me that always says, ``I'm not paying that much for that.'' So it's always challenging.
Q: Do you find it's easier to maintain a routine while touring?
A: Absolutely. Because we play six nights a week, it's usually sound check, play, drive, sleep, sound check, play, drive, sleep. There are great things about it and there are not-so-great things about it. The good thing is, all you're basically thinking about is music. The thing that's hard about it is you lose track of time, you lose track of reality, you lose touch with people.
Q: Are you lonely tonight?
A: I definitely was around the time the album came out because I had been out on the road for five or six years. It definitely took a toll on my personal life. I got home and I didn't have a place to live. My relationships were hanging in the balance. I basically let a lot of things slide, and you can only do that for so long before you can't count on things. I needed to go home and be home for a while. It was just something I needed to do.
Q: Everyone notes the Dylan and Stones influences in your music. Are there some more unusual influences, like Ratt or the Thompson Twins?
A: Not really. Country music was a big influence on me in a subliminal way. I was raised in a small-town farming community in Missouri, and the only radio stations we had were country. I think, without my knowing it and despite how much I hated country music, I was definitely influenced by it when I got into songwriting as a kid.
Q: Which of your looks do you regret the most -- the Michael Jackson hair-metal phase or the heroin-chic of your second, self- titled album?
A: I don't regret any of it. The look I had for Michael Jackson was not of my own choice, anyway. It was a stage production and everybody signed the contract. The hair and costume were not up to me. The only thing I asked them to do midway through the tour was to get some hairpieces so my hair wouldn't get thrashed. I think the images on my second album are very honest and very true, and that's all I can say about that. Your image when you're in the public eye is always up for interpretation, and that was my objective. In some ways it was my own way of telling people I wasn't going to be so nice for the press anymore. I wasn't going to let them into my life, because a lot of people have destroyed me and my image, and I took it really personally. So, I think it really was all in an effort to separate myself from everybody. You know, you learn as you go, and when you're living in the public eye you have to make apologies for it. Now that I have a little perspective on it, I don't really feel bad about it. It was very true to that moment and true to how I was feeling. It definitely got a lot of people talking.
Q: Have you ever been mistaken for Madonna?
A: You know what? Madonna can have my old look.